Argonne National Lab joins Joint Indo-American Bioinformatics

Dimple Verma
12 February 2003

The projects that will be undertaken by ANL in JIABA will be for development of technologies for construction of knowledge base for a particular organism of interest. It will include both experimental and computational projects.

The joint research will be done by involving leading scientists and researchers from both countries. The other collaborator of JIABA in the US is Bioinformatics Research Center (BRC), Medical College of Wisconsin. In India, the nodal agency for JIABA is Center for Development of Knowledge and Awareness (CEDKA).

Under JIABA, ANL, BRC and CEDKA will initiate a series of projects to establish communication, joint project infrastructure, and cross-programme training between the faculty, students and their collaborators in India and the US. This effort will further support joint Bioinformatics research and intellectual transfer between the centres and their collaborators.

Says CEDKA director Dr Mahesh Dutt: “ANL is one of the leading government laboratories of the US government. It has been behind several path-breaking research projects in the area of bioinformatics. ANL's participation in JIABA will lead to joint research projects, which will be beneficial for the world as a whole. Indian IT and pharma companies, research scientists and students will substantially gain from ANL's participation in JIABA.“

Says ANL head (bioinformatics group) Dr Natalia Maltsev: “I am very enthusiastic about being a part of JIABA. It will facilitate useful scientific collaborations between scientists in both countries. Bioinformatics is a very dynamic field and joint research projects with leading researchers from both countries will lead to tremendous scientific progress.

“India is famous around the world for the high quality of its education and creative cultural roots. During my scientific career I've met a lot of talented Indian scientists currently working in the US. Being a part of JIABA will allow ANL to interact and collaborate with the Indian scientists working in India. I am looking forward to it.“